The dog, she is fond of newly cut grass. I didn’t manage to get a picture of her rolling in it, but I can assure you she does.

When moving my grill to mow the grass under it, I heard a pop and one of the tripod legs had snapped completely. Chalk it up to old age. The ovoid tumbled to the ground, narrowly missing my foot.

The grill and I, a Weber by brand, have a history. Eight years ago, I wrote, “We visited our friends near Coal City, Illinois, on Saturday, and down that way a subdivision was hosting dozens of garage sales at the same time. So naturally we went, and the prize catch was a black ovoid grill for $5. Not new, of course, but in much better shape than the one we’ve been using since we moved here in 2003. A leg fell off of it a few days ago, fortunately when it was cold. Its bottom is partly rusted out, too.”

Here are pictures of the grill in action, when I had a mind to burn parts of our 2009 Christmas tree: “It took a little doing to get the tree alight. I needed to use a piece of paper as a starter. But once it got going, it created a fast-burning needle fire with some cool popping and crackling sounds to go with it, plus the unmistakable smell of burning evergreen.”

I don’t feel like learning soldering or welding — not sure which of those it would take — to fix it, so it’s time for a new one. Doubt if I can find one for $5. That was just luck.